Tweet
In a new post today, ondelette brings us up to date on the continuing saga of Aafia Siddiqui. For those who might be unfamiliar with her case, she is a PhD neuroscientist born in Pakistan and educated at MIT. She and her three children disappeared in March, 2003. It is believed that she was identified to US authorities by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who was being waterboarded 183 times that month. Last summer, after allegations that she might be the rumored "Grey Lady" of Bagram, she suddenly turned up in US custody with a gunshot wound. Here is a famous photo of her at that time:
Yesterday, there was a hearing on the issue of whether Siddiqui is fit to stand trial. Having such a hearing, or in fact any legal proceeding when the accused is also suspected of being a victim of torture poses grave risks to our legal system. Here is how ondelette poses the problem:
I am increasingly of the opinion that there is no possible way for a U.S. court, based firmly on the rule of law, deriving its powers from common law, the Constitution, the U.S. code, and all the international laws, treaties, and customary law, a court in which due process is guaranteed to everyone without regard to background, and which strives to mete out justice and observe the innocence of the accused until proven guilty — a court with such high ideals and aspirations — no possible way to accuse someone of a crime and try them in this court, while there is an unspoken allegation that the government bringing the accusation has, in fact, tortured the defendant for years while holding them in conditions of enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention. Because the unspoken rule in a U.S. court of law is that the government bringing criminal charges against the accused has, itself, committed no crime against the accused, and certainly not one of the most heinous of crimes, one for which there is no affirmative defense at all. Whether or not the charges against the government are true, there does not seem to be any way to conduct a real trial when the government stands accused variously of incommunicado detention, torture with threats of death, possible killing of a child, nudity, rape, extreme isolation, and druggings.
And yet, here we stand. As Glenn Greenwald notes today, the Obama justice system has become "a truly grotesque perversion of everything that our justice system and Constitution are supposed to guarantee" because there now is talk of continuing to imprison defendants who have been cleared of all charges. Similarly, the issue of when or how to use information obtained through torture is actually still being debated in the Senate.
Justice in the United States is now a fully tortured concept. Who will stop the madness? Where are the missing children?
43 Comments
Thanks Jim..chilling/so disturbing
Very well put together, Jim. I don’t know anyone better at grasping and explaining both the big picture and the details. And so economically, too…
Recommended. Thank you, Jim, Ondelette and Glenn Greenwald. Mary and I frequently ask for any new info on Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. For this case alone the Bush/Cheney regime should be arrested and tried for war crimes, IMO.
For over 6 years this woman has been tormented in every imaginable way. The disappearance of her 3 children alone is enough to render any mother unfit to stand trial for anything. Her youngest child was a still-nursing 6 month old baby when Dr. Siddiqui was arrested. Nothing is known about this baby or the next youngest child. The FBI has admitted having all in their custody at one time. War Crimes, I say!
Yesterday I received the 2 tape VHS film of The Nuremberg Trials . It was based on the trials of the Nazi judges who ordered sterilization, transport to concentration camps, and execution of “undesirables” during the reign of the Hitler regime. Over and over I was struck by the excuses and arguments presented by the defense then, and those presented in defense of the Bush/Cheney torture program.
Truly, America must take strong action against these attitudes of acceptance of dictatorial rule and abuse of our laws or we are doomed.
June 22/09.
“Dr Agha Saeed urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take sumo motto action for the repatriation of Dr. Afia to Pakistan. Alluding to the recent meeting of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry with the US special envoy to Pakistan, Richard Holbrook, he expressed concern that Holbrook is pressing the Chief Justice of Pakistan not to look into Dr. Afia’s case. “
http://www.draafia.org/2009/06…..#more-1647
‘pressing’, like Richard Armitage and Tenet ‘pressed’ Pakistan just before bombing Afghanistan?? Like, “You cooperate with us or we will bomb you back into the stone age”.
Holbrook is one of the long-time Council on Foreign Relations who surround Obama in this administration.
..sigh..I know..
“During filming for the television documentary ‘In Search of Prisoner 650′ journalist Yvonne Ridley spoke to the Governor of Ghazni province in Afghanistan. In this clip he clearly states that the now infamous pictures of Dr Aafia Siddiqui were taken ‘30 minutes after her arrest’. “
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhseSkNX68
You are correct. The Nuremberg Trials shine the klieg lights on the dramatic deterioration of America’s sense of Justice and respect for law.
It shames me as a human and an American.
Our government is clearly out of our control.
ackack, it is the members of the U.S. Supreme Court who bear the guilt for putting the Bush/Cheney regime in power; not the American voters. Ironic that the highest court of “justice” enabled the most law-breaking administration in American history to gain the presidency and make of Justice a mockery.
True. However, that goes nowhere to expiate the Obama administration of the sins it chooses to perpetuate. Little of substance relating to the topic at hand has changed with the changing of the guard.
Also, surname origins? You mean Iran Contra and Reagan?
Some of the same guys — younger then. I totally agree with your first paragraph.
If you don’t mind maybe getting a headache..watch the initial interview that the governor gave. The video you’d have seen on CNN etc. without a translation. Cageprisoners has the translation. Also check out the video from #6. A close up where we would have seen who the woman really was that was said to be Aafia. Take note..she is headless at 1:00 into the video.
***********
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..r_embedded
Watched several times, didn’t see; will try some more. I figure they sold her to the Americans. Where are the 2 smallest children even at this early time?
The two other children are long gone at the time the video was taken. It was taken in 2008 when she was arrested by Ghazni police. She disappeared in 2003 with all three children. There are a lot of theories on the other two, including that Maryam (the middle child) was sold. Many people, including Aafia Siddiqui’s former lawyer, have stated that the baby is dead.
The Islamabad High Court ordered the Pakistani government to assist her defense in the U.S. and to plead for her return under the 1959 extradition treaty between Pakistan and the U.S. They also ordered the government to make every effort to find the children. The Pakistani FIA (their version of the FBI) has requested records from the U.S. and has interviewed her former husband. But they are still missing.
Thank you for all you do Ondelette and for determinedly reminding all who will look and think that Dr. Siddiqui is a human being and that her life is just as valuable as each of our own.
At 1:00..to the left of the boy..you see the striped top that the woman wore in the ‘interview’ video. You can see her hands, but you don’t see her head. Musharraf’s son is the one who is thought to have sold her to the Americans. Her first, and only, husband seems to have been involved, also. Hard to pin down whether he was part of the selling of Aafia, or not. All I know is that the children were not with her. If anybody knows if they are even alive..they aren’t saying. What the son has said about his siblings since going to Aafia’s sister has been kept confidential.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhseSkNX68
Finally saw the striped “top”. All other pics I’ve seen of her with her son, she is on his left and in all black. Here the striped top is on his right and no woman in all black on his left. May not be the same woman. This may be the point at which Aafi and her son were separated.
FBI Dir Mueller knows the full story of this woman and her children. AG Holder should do his duty, subpeona Mueller, interrogate him and confine him under arrest if he does not divulge the full truth.
Instead of this being the great war on terrorism, it is the great war to create terrorism – and clearly Bush/Cheney have won that one hands down.
..a war OF terrorism..
Dr. Siddiqui is in our judicial system seeking American justice and nothing of the sort has happened. This is such a tragic case and yet hardly anyone save for ondelette and some anti-torture bloggers seems to really care. If she is innocent, which is certainly possible based on the facts that ondelette has pieced together, imagine what she must feel like and no wonder she cries out loudly in court.
I would urge anyone who reads this to give ondelette’s post on HAC as much visibility as possible. Send it to everyone you know. We have to show Asfia that America cares as much as ondelette who has been telling us about her for at least two years. She is a PhD educated in our university system with children who have disappeared and how is her story not compelling enough for us to at least pay sufficient attention to her plight. What kind of an America do we live in? Why aren’t we in the streets on her behalf? How much longer do we ignore her?
She will be ignored as long as the gov’t propaganda shills keep lying about her case. That picture was taken 30 minutes after her arrest, so she obviously arrived there already suffering from gunshot wounds. She does not look like she was in any condition to pick up a gun let alone figure how to use it all within seconds.
***********
“The day after her arrest by Afghani authorities on July 17, Siddiqui was shot twice in the torso, U.S. officials said, when she grabbed a U.S. soldier’s M-4 carbine and attempted to shoot another officer as a team of US soldiers and FBI agents prepared to question her. A U.S. interpreter threw off her aim when he pushed the gun, authorities said, and she then was shot twice with a .9 millimeter handgun. According to the U.S. Government, despite her wounds, she shouted that she “wanted to kill Americans,” and struggled with her captors before they subdued her. “
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/…..038;page=1
The picture was taken 30 minutes after her arrest by the Ghazni police. That would have been the day before she was shot. BTW, the Afghan police in Ghazni have a different story as to how she was shot, which concurs with her statement that she didn’t shoot anybody or any bullets,
http://www.reuters.com/article…..SISL107305
Who writes these scripts?
Thanks for all the great comments and links. I’m still astounded that Dr. Siddiqui’s case hasn’t been taken up by a more prominent group. It seems to speak so clearly to parents and to those who value international educational opportunities as a way to promote peace and understanding.
Jim, who was Dir. FBI in 2003? He is ultimately responsible for this shameful act.
Robert S. Mueller
Robert S. Mueller III.
Anybody else ever noticed the origin of so many of the surnames in the Bush/Cheney regime?
It is quite likely that some of those tortured by the Bush Administration are themselves CIA operatives. Sounds ridiculous, right? Not when you consider that Al Qaeda is in fact an invention of the CIA, and that they have been recruiting in the middle east since the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
If the CIA has been using operatives within this community to do its bidding (or at the least, be available as patsies when they need one), it would be perfectly logical to assume that the CIA would NEVER want these assets in any forum where they could be questioned under oath. The reason they were imprisoned precisely the way they were, and tortured precisely the way they were, was to render them unavailable to stand trial.
No sworn testimony, no cameras and reporters, no problem.
THE REASON that these people have been held without access to the media or the legal system is that they know too much (as did Saddam).
Think that sounds crazy?
Crazier than this?
9/11:
7/7:
ODDS?
…since before the Soviet invasion..
***********
“Carter advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski stated: “According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, December 24, 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise.” Brzezinski himself played a fundamental role in crafting US policy, which, unbeknownst even to the mujahideen, was part of a larger strategy “to induce a Soviet military intervention.” In a 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, Brzezinski recalled: “We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would…That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap … The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War.”
Additionally, on July 3, 1979, Carter signed a presidential finding authorizing funding for anticommunist guerrillas in Afghanistan. As a part of the Central Intelligence Agency program Operation Cyclone, the massive arming of Afghanistan’s mujahideen was started. “
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S…..fghanistan
This reporter is referring to Aafia’s words last year. Aafia says that she fears the youngest was dead, but does not say why.
***********
“Thursday, May 07, 2009
By Mariana Baabar
When asked by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed whether she got married to Ammar Ali Balochi, as had been alleged by some US official quarters, she denied knowing Ammar Ali Balochi let alone being married to him. Ammar Ali Balochi is presently under detention at Guantanamo.
Dr Afia Siddiqui wanted to meet her children. Whenever she felt hopeless she wanted to die.
Her three children, two sons and a daughter (Ahmad, Suleman and Maryam) were taken away. She was told that her children would be returned only if she confessed to meetings with certain people. She however did not disclose the names of the said people to the delegation. She agreed and feared that this forced confession could go against her in Pakistan. She also feared that her third child, a son by the name of Suleman, might have been killed. She alleged that at Bagram one of the interrogators was an Indian, who was her contemporary at MIT and was interested in her research work. “
http://united4justice.wordpress.com/
Elizabeth Fink also had said, more definitively, that it was believed that Suleman is dead. Der Spiegel reported that the child was believed to have fallen ill and died. There is also a report that she was shown a picture of her son (not known which) lying in a pool of his own blood, by interrogators.
Since the older boy has allegedly been returned to his aunt in Pakistan, then the pic would be the baby. My God, why did they do this to this woman? to this innocent baby? and the little 5 year old girl?
One article at one of bluebutterfly’s links stated that Dr. Siddiqui had identified one of her Indian interrogators as a fellow student at MIT. hmmmm, maybe her sin was being too intellectually gifted which his male ego could not tolerate??
When Sen. Whitehouse live-blogged here at FDL I asked him (very early in the session) if he had any info on Dr. Siddiqui’s children. He did not acknowledge my question, though he honestly tried to answer those from all others. He is a good man and very troubled by all this, so I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that he knew but cannot speak about it.
Those in power truly fear that if “we the people” ever found out the full measure of their crimes that there would be a revolution. I can only hope their fears are well grounded.
The unreleased torture photos likely have Aafia and/or her chldren in some of them.
I missed this earlier. How awful. Whether the child died, or not, may never be known. Fallen ill and died is sure different than being tortured, beaten, dropped, whatever it was that caused the child to be laying in blood. To get her to give information, the child might have been put in blood that was not his or her own. It could have been animal blood for all Aafia would have known.
Here’s a link to more details on the court hearing for compentcy to stand trial.
http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N29/siddiqui.html
Nothing about this case makes sense. Aafia Siddiqui is caught in a nightmarish trap and guilt or innocence has little to do with it. If she weren’t insane before, what she is going through now will make sure she is.
To hold her hearing behind closed doors says much.
Aafia has not been charged with terrorism. Why now is the FIA trying to see her? These people are more likely than not to have been involved with her kidnapping and we know the FBI was. Why would the FBI be allowed to make this decision? I fear a set up occurring where the FBI and FIA fake evidence against her.
*******************
June 14/09
“RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has sought access to Dr Aafia Siddiqui through the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation, Dawn has learnt.
The Pakistani investigators have also called for inclusion of Dr Siddiqui’s ex-husband, Mohammad Amjad Khan, in their probe.
FIA Director General Tariq Khosa asked the government to provide the agency with access to Dr Siddiqui, a Pakistani national in the custody of US authorities on charges of assaulting and attempting to murder members of American forces during her detention in Afghanistan.
The purpose of getting access to Dr Siddiqui is to investigate her alleged links with any terror network.
A source said the government had also been asked to allow the FIA to include Mr Khan in the probe as the investigators needed to hold some sessions with him ‘to get vital information.’
The source said the FIA staff had also sought an interview with one of the Pakistani senators, who recently met Dr Siddiqui in the United States. ‘A meeting with the senator would be useful for the FIA’s investigation,’ he added. “
http://actdcmetro.wordpress.co…..rough-fbi/
Blue, the info at your link is ominous. (has the old ISI’s name changed to FIA ?) An article I read some time back reported on an interview with Dr. Siddiqui’s ex-husband in which he branded her as a terrorist.
IMO, the fierce weapon which this frail, battered, suffering woman wields is Truth; that is the biggest fear and terror these monstrous bullies can know.
There is a tiny bird singing in the courtroom; call in the FBI, the FIA, the ambassador, the stormtroopers, the Doctors of Doom, Mr. Death…..this song must be silenced. Too late, you Master Terrorists, the little bird’s song has been heard far and wide and recorded for all Time, branding you guilty of that which you accuse this tragic little woman.
No..
**
“FIA was established under FIA Act, 1975 and preceded Pakistan Special Police Establishment (PSPE). “
http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/div…..tentID=774
ex husband is a lying sack of s..t
“Dr Aafia Siddiqui cut a lone figure as she slowly turned her head around to survey the packed courtroom in New York a few days ago.
With her sad brown eyes, she peered beyond her off-white veil and olive green jilbaab which covered her frail body.
“Today, when Sister Aafiya came and sat covered in her off-white veil and a olive green jilbaab that covered her whole body except for her eyes, she turned back to see a court room filled with non-muslims and only one muslim. She glanced once past me and returned for a second look. Perhaps I was the only face she felt was not in there to harm her. That is how she feels towards everyone else including her own defense attorneys.
“As the proceedings went on, she broke her silence as well as the court rules and spoke in her own defense saying she never shot anybody, nor is she against America. America has been framed in a war because of a misunderstanding. She has knowledge of those who caused it and this knowledge she has is the reason that all this has happened to her, because they don’t want anyone to believe what she has to say about them.”
“She also complained about physical harm as recent as THIS MORNING in the form of ‘forced gynecological exams ordered by the court’ that left her ‘aching all over.
“One such outburst from her resulted in the judge being forced to break for 5 minutes so the defense is able to calm her down. When she came back, she said ‘this court is the worst court ever’. At one time she told the judge that she wanted to relieve her attorneys but the judge didn’t take her seriously and asked the attorney speaking at the time to continue speaking.
Please, if you do nothing else today, do this … send the sister a note, a card a letter and tell her she is not alone, that we will not abandon her, and that you love her for the sake of Allah (swt) for she is our sister in Islam.
Send your mail to:
AAFIYA SIDDIQUI #90279-054
MDC BROOKLYN
METROPOLITAN DETENTION CENTER
P.O. BOX 329002
BROOKLYN, NY 11232
AMERICA “
http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=29714
Someday, maybe decades from now, Aafia Siddiqui and her children could become the emblem of the Bush/Obama torture history. No good thing will come from this and, in time, history will be quite harsh in the recounting. Aafia Siddiqui’s story has all of the elements to make it the quintessential black blot on the record of everyone involved. It cannot be known, from where we stand in the midst of this ongoing horror, what historians will choose as the story from which all other elements are aligned. I’m willing to bet that Aafia Siddiqui’s story will make it into the history books, and folks not yet born will wonder why and how it could possibly be true. There will be no comfort for us or for her in such an eventuality. But, she will be too powerful a symbol for history to ignore.
Perhaps, if a massive amount of attention is given now to support her. If it is not, her story will be buried.
The FIA got involved with Aafia by June 14th. On June 3rd, Holbrook gave a press conference in Pakistan. Red flag, I’d say. His conference was an exercise in side stepping reporters questions. He refused to answer some and outright lied in some of his answers. I fear for Aafia because one billion plus 110 million plus 20 million plus 200 million is a lot of money and that is how much the US taxpayers are giving Pakistan. If the FIA has been told to fabricate terrorist information against her; they will fabricate it. The one billion was pledged in Tokyo on April 17th, the 110 million by Clinton 10 days before his press conference and the 20 million was given in secret to NGOs after the 110 million. Holbrook said that Obama had already asked Congress for another 200 million and approval was likely. Additional money for lifting and transportation is pledged to be given. He starts talking about this money 6 minutes into the 23 minute video.
http://pkpolitics.com/2009/06/…..june-2009/
“In an exclusive interview given to Karachi journalist Aroosa Masroor at The News, Dr Khan said that most claims about Aafiya, propagated to garner public support and sympathy, are untrue.
Why he chose to break his silence after six years is not immediately obvious … unless you buy in to the crazy theory that he was instrumental in his wife’s arrest and disappearance.
Of course it would be outrageous and defamatory to suggest Dr Khan was involved and I certainly have no evidence to suggest otherwise, but what intrigues me is why this man would want to try and deliberately mislead the public as he did in his first on-the-record interview.
I am not sure what are his motives but, in a conference I gave at the Islamabad National Press Club this week I threw out a challenge to Dr Khan to either put up or shut up.
I now understand Aafia’s case is going to be submitted to the International Court of Justice in The Hague and that the government of Pakistan is making serious efforts on this issue.
The court hearing is, in itself, illegal and I’m not sure how it can go ahead. I say that on the basis Aafiya, is after all a Pakistani citizen who is being tried for an alleged offence carried out in Afghanistan. She is only standing trial in America because she was put on a rendition flight to America – and was certainly not extradited. “
http://yvonneridley.org/yvonne…..diqui.html